


The Mermaid & the Hunter

by commas_and_ampersands



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mermaids, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-24
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-08-28 16:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16727280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/commas_and_ampersands/pseuds/commas_and_ampersands
Summary: "I am a creature of the sea, and of all mankind, sailors are most liable to tell tales.  I have heard of your kind, Sapphire of Black Moon.  Brother to a tortured leader, lover to a scornful woman.  An unhappy man with an unhappy... duty."





	The Mermaid & the Hunter

**Author's Note:**

> Written April 2011; updated October 2017.

Sapphire hunted.  
  
He did not enjoy it as his brethren did. He did not care for the attention Emerald basked in. He did not lust for blood like the Crimson Ruby. And as for Diamond, his brother.... Well, he was never sure what motivated Diamond. He hunted as though it were an obsession, as though he looked for something in particular.  
  
Sapphire hunted because had to. The purpose of the Black Moon Clan was simple: eliminate all non-mortal creatures that walked the Earth. The land of Terra belonged to the humans, who held dominion over the animals that crawled and flew and swam. There was no place in a world like this for the Elven, the Sirens, the beings who lived past what reason should dictate.  
  
It was not that he didn't believe in the cause. The thought of any creature living beyond a normal life span made him ill. It wasn't... natural. An abomination that nature did not have the sense to stamp out. His family took on the responsibility, and thus far, they'd done a fair job. The unicorns were all dead, and the fairies had fled to where they could no longer be hunted.  
  
Now Sapphire set his sights on the ocean-born, the women of the deep.  The Mermaids.  
  
He set sail with a small crew, leaving behind a confident brother and an erstwhile lover. Sapphire did not love the sea as his shipmates did, but he felt a kinship with it. He appreciated the silence. The dead calm. The darkness that extended past the depths of what his eyes could see.  
  
One night, he walked the ship from bow to stern, unable to find restful sleep. That's when he saw her.  
  
She had swum to the side of the ship and somehow climbed on to the railing. She'd anchored herself with her tail wrapped twice around the beam. She kept her hands braced at either side of her, unarmed and webbed to the first knuckle.  Hair like water spelled into strands, cropped short over pointed ears trimmed in misshapen pearls. Scales like quicksilver, shimmering ice and diamonds in the dark. Eyes the color of crushing depths boring into him. An accusation. Damnation from the inhuman.  
  
He had no sword with which to slay her being in his nightclothes. He ought to have sounded the alarm and roused the rest of the crew, but for whatever reason, he did not. Instead, he drifted closer to the railing, waiting for her to swim away. Perhaps she would try and lure him to his death, but the Black Moon had trained against such trickery. Sapphire was confident that he could resist her thrall if she chose to attack in such a manner.  
  
But she just kept glaring in condemnation.  
  
Finally, he spoke, slowly and over-enunciating.  "Do you understand me?"  
  
She scoffed, "Of course. You hunt us like animals. Does it make you feel better to suppose we have not the brains to understand your primitive tongue?"  
  
Her speech was heavily accented, her consonants soft and her vowels fuller and richer than the norm. He found he liked it. "I do my duty to my family."  
  
"One bathed in the blood of the innocent," she hissed. "I am a creature of the sea, and of all mankind, sailors are most liable to tell tales. I have heard of your kind, Sapphire of Black Moon. Brother to a tortured leader, lover to a scornful woman. An unhappy man with an unhappy... duty." The last she spat out like a curse.  
  
She was not the first to try and trick him, though she was the most beautiful. "No creature should live forever."  
  
"Perhaps not.  But no creature should take it upon himself to slay another," she said, her voice taking on a strange, gurgling quality. "You do not possess the right."  
  
"I take no pleasure in it," Sapphire confessed, shocked by his own honesty.  
  
The mermaid was not surprised by this. "I see your sadness. If I so chose, I could taste it on your skin as I devoured you." She smiled and though he could not clearly make out her features in the black, he remembered that Emerald had brought home the head of a mermaid once, many year ago. Rows upon rows of tiny, tearing teeth, too many for a mouth that seemed almost human. Those teeth had become a necklace that was not so much worn as displayed, left just sharp enough to draw blood from a careless caress.  
  
Sapphire pulled himself from the memory of the dead sea monster's jaws. "I doubt that."  
  
"Care to put it to the test?"  
  
"If you planned to kill me, you would have tried by now," Sapphire reasoned. He was of an analytical mind, something he and the creature had in common, it seemed. "You revealed yourself for some other purpose. Speak and be gone."

The mermaid bristled like cold fire. "Do not presume to command me, mortal."  
  
It had been arrogant of him; he didn't normally pretend to such confidence. He'd been with the Crimson Ruby too long.  
  
The silence stretched, and she was able to let the insult pass. But only just. "I come to issue a warning."  
  
He arched an eyebrow. "What of? And why?"  
  
"I come to bear news of a movement rising in the depths of Fae. More than pixies have retreated to that realm, but do not mistake it for cowardice. Recognize what it is: a tactical advantage. They will regroup. The final battle will come. And you and your ilk will perish."  
  
He shivered to hear the certainty in her voice. It was not a question of who would triumph for her. It was a foregone conclusion. He wondered if mermaids had the gift of sight like centaurs. "Why do you tell me this?"  
  
Her dark eyes seemed to shift, no longer hard as ice caps, but soft, like a gentle wave. God, did she pity him?  
  
"There are those among us who do not like bloodshed of any sort. Even if our enemies are ignorant, hateful, intolerant sycophants... we do not believe you should die unnecessarily. We wish to broker peace, and it is well known among our kind that you are in the best position to do so."  
  
If Sapphire had not already been used to having the weight of the world on his shoulders, he might have buckled under this. "I am honor bound to my family. I am loyal to our cause."

"Are you really?"

"Of course."  
  
"Then why am I still alive?"  
  
Sapphire had no answer for her.  
  
She smiled sadly, the expression softening the inhuman gaunt of her cheek. He had to fight the impulse to stroke her flesh. Intellectually, he knew it would be cold, and yet his longing demanded she would be warm. Pretty lie for a pretty creature designed to capture men's souls.

Yet she claimed to want peace. Another trick? Or a nuance of her culture he had never bothered to understand?

She began to extract herself from the side of the ship. Sapphire curled his hands into fists at his side. It was all he could do to not reach out and clutch her to him. "You'd best head back for land," she said. "You'll find none of my people in these waters. In two days' time, you'll reach the siren's territory, and they will happily rip you limb from limb.

"Heed the warnings of me and mind, Sapphire of Black Moon."  Then she pushed off the rail, diving backwards and disappearing beneath the waves.

As much control as he had exhibited and prided himself on, he could not stop the cry her departure rent from his throat. It shamed and emboldened him in equal measure.  
  
He waited for hours for her to return, to catch just a glimpse of white and silver scales beneath the blue. She did not return. He could see her again if he jumped in after her... but she would truly taste the regrets on his skin then. It might have been her aim all along. He knew not.

Hours later, a red dawn rose. He sought out the captain and advised him to turn around, heading for home. He would decide what to tell his brother in the time it took to return.

That night, and for every night thereafter, he dreamed of drowning eyes.

**Author's Note:**

> Admittedly, this is basically Ami's aesthetics with Rei's personality. I almost swapped out Ami with Rei while I tweaked some other things, but this was a request, so I'll go ahead and leave it as is.
> 
> I'm actually quite fond of this universe, but I'll almost certainly never continue it. If anyone else wants to use the idea (and maybe actually swap out Ami for Rei or someone else), go for it! And let me know because I'd love to read it.


End file.
